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United States tops Canada in women’s World Championship

Sweden Hockey  Womens Worlds

U.S. Hilary Knight, left, reacts after scoring the second goal of the game, next to Canada’s Rebecca Johnston during the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship final between U.S. and Canada at Malmo Isstadion in Malmo, southern Sweden, on Saturday April 4, 2015. (AP Photo/Claudio Bresciani / TT) SWEDEN OUT

AP

Canada has claimed the Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey in four straight Winter Games, but that dominance hasn’t translated to the World Women’s Championships. In recent years it’s been the United States leading the pack and that trend continued on Saturday when America earned a 7-5 victory over Canada in the gold medal game.

There were some parallels between this contest and the final game of the Olympics as once again the United States got off to a great start only to see Canada rally back. In Saturday’s case the Canadians scored three goals in the span of roughly two minutes midway through the second period to erase a 5-2 lead. This time though, the United States bounced back.

“Huge motivator,” Team USA’s Hilary Knight said of their loss in the Olympics, per the Canadian Press. “We had the hump on our back, the monkey on our back from Sochi and that didn’t feel good. We came out with a win and it feels really good.”

Knight scored a goal and had an assist on Saturday en route to being named the tournament’s MVP. She was one of the 13 players on the United States’ championship squad that was also part of America’s 2014 silver medal winning team.

The United States has now won six of the last eight world championships. Finland earned a 4-1 victory over Russia to win the bronze medal for the fourth time in the last six tournaments.

Follow @RyanDadoun